The Gethsemane Lutheran Church Photography Small Group met the last four Fridays of January. We decided to split the time in half having two photography field trips and two in-house sessions. The field trips to the Stone Arch Bridge in Minneapolis (Jan 10) and Ice Carvings at Rice Park in Saint Paul (Jan 31) each provided wonderful photo opportunities.
Minus 3° F temperatures and swirling winds did not stop our intrepid group from venturing out on the bridge…
The pitch black skies and snowy bridge deck add to the “wintery feel” of this nice image of the downtown Minneapolis skyline shot from the middle of the bridge over the Mississippi River.
Rice Park is the venue for an ice sculpture contest held each year during the Saint Paul Winter Carnival. A week of warm weather melted most of the ice but Rice Park always yields good opportunities for photography. This image captured in front of the Ordway Theatre shows off the night time beauty of the park nicely.
The two images below show the Stone Arch Bridge photo before and after “enhancing” using Adobe Photoshop Elements. Cropping, straightening, tweaking exposure, and toning transforms this “as shot” photo into a beautifully pleasing image.
My favorite image from our field trips nicely re-enforces a point I’ve heard often in photography classes… Don’t put your camera away too soon! I captured this image of the downtown Saint Paul Light Rail Central Station as we walked away after photographing in the park. Continuing to shoot photos all the way back to the car brought me to this really nice place.
